Call It a Comeback

Each week during the Challenge we’re sending you (our Partners and Team Captains) a rundown of our best tips and methods to increase your team’s engagement with the Challenge. You can put these tools in action using the Captain’s Post (a message to your whole team, pinned to the top of the Communication Feed. You can create one by selecting “Captain’s Post” in the dropdown when you write an update (desktop) or checking the Captain’s Post box (in the iOS or Android App).

Why do these Captain’s Practices?

We’re in the middle of Week 4 of the Challenge, and statistically, we’re at a bit of a turning point.

Because this is where your players tend to start dropping off — scoring fewer points on days when they do score (and recording a score on fewer days overall).

We have some theories on why this might be so, all coming from our own experience. The primary one is simple: players are doing the work of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, but can’t quite remember why. And so they slip, skipping exercise, losing sleep, and eating treats. And after a few days of slippage, they experience a “why bother?” moment — and a permanent reversion to old habits.

This is where you come in. As the Team Captain, you’ll get ahead of the slip, reminding your players of the ebb and flow of the Challenge, as well as giving them some concrete tools for getting back on track when things go awry.

This week, we’ll use our Captain’s Post to teach our players specific ways to deal with “mistakes” — those inevitable moments during the Challenge when all does NOT go according to plan.

We’ll do so using motivation, combining our compassion with immediate action steps.

A sample Captain’s Post is included here for you.

Captain’s Practice #4: Call it a Comeback

In your Captain's Post, you’ll give your players the tools they need to get back on track after things have slipped — methods to come back to the Challenge after poor dietary choices, a foregone Habit, or a simple lack of daily scoring.

Below, you’ll find a sample postto inspire you. It contains some of our best tips for a comeback, and hopefully, you’ll find them useful. Of course, you’ll want to edit tone and details to fit your style, but this should help you create your own post without starting from scratch.

Sample Post:

Hi Guys,

I took some “liberties” with Nutrition this past week.

Seriously. I scored a couple of zeroes (and a bunch of 2s and 3s).

(Oreos might have had something to do with it.)

And it got me thinking that things could go one of two ways —

I could say “forget it” and go back to how I was eating pre-Challenge (think wine and chicken wings and ice cream), or I could get back on track.

And I really want to get back on track.

Because I felt awesome when all was going according to plan.

(And I was getting very close to my goal.)

So I wanted to share the ways that I get back on the straight and narrow after missing a day or two (or five) of one of the Habits. Check them out — and hopefully, they’ll help you, too.

Method 1: One Perfect Day

This is simple. Wake up in the morning with the objective of nailing EVERYTHING for 24 hours. Drink your water, do your workout, stretch, eat perfectly, sleep, do the Well-Being Practice, and write your reflection.

I find this works for a couple of reasons. First, I’ve nipped my off-plan behavior in the bud. I’m on track. Second, I’m doing everything well, which kicks off a virtuous cycle of wanting to do everything well again tomorrow. Third, I’m just focused on today (rather than how many days remain in the Challenge), making it easier to see my success. This is my go-to method for getting back on track.

Method 2: Remember Why (in Writing)

When you started the Challenge, you did so for a specific reason. Recalling that reason (and putting it in writing), can help you re-dedicate yourself to the Challenge.

My goal for this Challenge was a combination aesthetic and performance goal — I wanted to drop from 16% to 12% bodyfat, replacing about 5 pounds of fat with 5 pounds of muscle (figuring I would both look better AND perform better in the gym).

Of course, achieving this goal is important to me — and way more important than the very fleeting joy of eating a bunch of cookies.

So this morning, I wrote my goal on a post-it note and stuck it on my computer monitor. Now, I’ve got an instant reminder as to why I’m sticking with this for 6 weeks — and a daily poke to keep things on track.

Method 3: Make it Public

Here’s my goal, made public:

I want to score a 5 in Nutrition at least 5 days this week, and no less than a 4 on the other 2 days.

It’s not perfection (but it’s close) and it represents a strong gain over last week’s behavior.

By making this public, I’m more likely to stick with it, and I’ll plan to back up my words by posting a screenshot of my scores each day. Of course, I’ll start by showing you how off-track I got (see the “rainbow chart” above).

If you’re into this idea, just make your goal public, and tell us how it’s going in your Daily Reflection.

I hope that these methods help you guys — and if you have one you’d like to share, I’m sure the team would love to hear it!